Today ABO released its annual Algae Industry Survey and the results build on yesterday’s news that consumers love algae biofuels. The key highlights will be encouraging to anybody following the commercialization of algae technologies that are being used to produce renewable fuels, feeds, fertilizers and other products:
- 91% of respondents say it is likely (from somewhat likely to extremely likely) that algae-based fuels will be cost-competitive by 2020.
- Nearly 1 in 4 (23%) of producers say the price will be below $3.00 per gallon by 2020.
- Congressional interest is significant—65% of respondents’ organizations either have met with or plan to meet with legislators.
- Job growth was confidently predicted by employers for 2013. By 2020 some were projecting significant growth, but with more uncertainty (up to 30% of ABO members were not sure what their employment figures would be in 2020).
- 90% of employers say better federal policy support would likely accelerate hiring.
- The most important federal policies in building a robust algae industry were identified as research and development grants, commercialization grants, and tax credits and/or incentives.
- The most critical challenges for the industry to achieve cost-competitiveness were identified by producers as cost-efficient production systems and harvesting and extraction systems.
You can read more in the press release or get a deeper feel for the results in the executive summary.
A SlideShare deck of the highlights is also available: